BISMARCK — An unusual clause in the North Dakota Constitution that limits the power of the courts kept the state’s near-total abortion ban from being struck down last month.

Most state Supreme Courts require a majority vote to declare a law unconstitutional. But in North Dakota, it takes a supermajority — a vote of at least four justices — for the Supreme Court to strike down a law. That’s why the state’s 2023 abortion law remains on the books even though three of five justices on the high court found it unconstitutionally vague under the North Dakota Constitution.

The only other state that requires a judicial supermajority to find a state law unconstitutional is Nebraska.

North Dakota voters adopted the rule into the state constitution in 1918 as a way to temper the power of the cour

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